In 1983, Neil Kinnock and Roy Hattersley both stood both for Leader and for Deputy Leader. But Hattersley had had no desire to be Deputy. Gerald Kaufman forged his signature and he won. Those were the days.
According to Hattersley, a Constituency Labour Party would forgive an MP for being lazy, financially corrupt, sexually deviant, or on the Right of the party, "but only ever one of those." He professed only ever to have been accused of one of them, "and even to that, being on the Right of the party, I plead not guilty." Certainly, Harold Wilson had denied him the position of Education Secretary "because I need someone I can trust completely", giving it instead to Reg Prentice. A vanished world.
No comments:
Post a Comment